Welfare and Employment Among Single Mothers: Israel from a Comparative PerspectiveAuthor: Haya StierPolicy ResearchOctober 02, 2011

This chapter reports on the status of single mothers in the Western world from a comparative perspective, with the aim of shining a light on the characteristics and socioeconomic status of this population in Israel.

Women raising their children alone attract considerable public attention as a group, due primarily to their economic vulnerability. This comparison will focus on the demographic characteristics of single mothers, both between Israel and other countries and within each country relative to mothers in two-partner families; the study will also look at single mothers’ economic status and their degree of reliance on state assistance. The family-type comparison will facilitate an understanding of the difficulties and constraints faced by single-parent families. The inter-country comparison will shed light on the causes of this group’s poverty, the group’s economic vulnerability, and possible ways of improving its economic status.